Page 30 of Love Sick

However, he cannot reciprocate because I realize he is bound.

“How are you?” He nuzzles into me, the warmth of his flesh like a comforting embrace.

I can’t help but laugh. “I’ve had better days. But I feel better now. They said you were dead.”

He kisses the top of my head. “I’m right here, baby.”

“I really missed you.” Hardly eloquent, but it’s the truth.

“And I really missed you too. I’m so sorry they’ve done this to you. Where are we?”

“I followed the tunnels under the hospital. Who did this to you?” I ask as I wrap my arms around his thick neck. His long hair tickles my nose as I inhale his scent deeply.

He smells like home.

“You don’t remember?”

“Things are starting to come back slowly, but it’s still so foggy,” I confess, unable to help myself as I press my lips to the side of his throat.

He hums low and a fire burns within me. I need him more than I need air to breathe. But first, I need to untie him.

Fumbling with the leather straps around his wrists, I feel they are locked with a key and not a buckle. Without a key, I don’t think I can free him.

“She has the key,” he says, reading my frustration.

“Who does?”

“Dr. Norton, the same woman who made you forget.”

“Why is she doing this to us?”

Dutch sighs, revealing there is so much more than I thought.

“There should be some surgical tools on a table near the other bed.”

He doesn’t need to say any more as I jump up and blindly feel around the room for something that resembles a table. I find it when I bump into it, making a loud clanging noise as instruments clatter onto the floor.

“Shit!” I curse, dropping to my hands and knees and scrambling for the tools.

A hiss leaves me as I cut my thumb on something sharp, but that something sharp is exactly what I need. I suck on my thumb as I grab the scalpel in my other hand and race back to Dutch. I still can’t see well, so I carefully feel where the leather cuff sits on his wrist as I don’t want to cut him.

It’s a thick piece of leather, but the tool is sharp, so it won’t take long to cut through it. Just as I press the tip into the strap, the lights flicker on with a buzz, and the darkness subsides. The harsh light burns my eyes, but that pales in comparison to when I focus on Dutch’s face which is inches away from mine.

It’s the most surreal feeling—I remember him, but I don’t.

It suddenly feels like I’ve been brought back to life and, forgetting the task at hand, I lift a trembling finger and gently brush back a strand of soft blond hair from his forehead. I trace the slope of his strong nose, running a finger to the apple of his cheek, and then back to his nose.

His Cupid’s bow just accents his luscious full lips, lips which I remember kissing and forgetting the world exists.

But it’s the blueness of his eyes which render me speechless, because it’s like I can see inside of his soul. And what I see…he takes my breath away.

He is so beautiful, angels weep, but I know beneath that beauty lays a warrior who would fight for me until death. He has before…

Placing my hand to his cheek, he leans into it, watching me as closely as I watch him. It’s like we’re seeing one another for the first time.

“Are you…hurt?” he asks, his Adam’s apple bobbing with a deep swallow.

“I’m okay,” I assure him. “I just need to remember.”

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